


Chasm

by Off_Line



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Death, Doomed Timelines, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, The Homestuck Epilogues: Meat, omnipotent author
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:15:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Off_Line/pseuds/Off_Line
Summary: Everything written happens, and at the same time, does not. These two extremes cancel one another out, and thus the only sure thing we know is in this work is John Egbert.-Alternatively, the aftermath of Meat John's death.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, John Egbert/Dirk Strider, John Egbert/Terezi Pyrope, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Section A.1

It often feels strange to sit on what can quite literally be the edge of the universe. He’s slumped in a car, with Terezi’s face washing over his limited and blurry vision. He can’t say much. Or maybe he refuses to exert himself in these last moments. This is really the first time he actually feels the wash of death over him. Not to toot his horn as the narrator yet overall omnipotent God (who chose to take time out of their day to tell his tale) but I’m quite sure he’ll die a heroic death. 

It’s funny; he thinks, that we automatically think we’re narcissists the moment we recognise something we’ve done for the good. He closes his eyes after uttering his last words. We’ve all read The Epilogues, we all know what happened in this moment, did we not? If so, I don’t see why we should continue recounting those events. 

Let’s move on to the actual reason I brought you all here today. 

==>


	2. Section A.2

This timeline is clearly over. Or at the very least, it is for John. Let’s not focus on the canon for a second. By technicality, anything that is possible and at the same time impossible can count as canon and non-canon. Homestuck has always been meta, besides political. But I’ll just keep it simple this time around. 

What happened to the other Johns? In their timelines, do they succeed? What happens to those forgotten, those doomed right at the end? Do you think some of them manage to escape Paradox Space’s systematic erasure? It wouldn’t be fair to say that there’s never a way to escape anything and anyone (hence quite literally running away from L*rd E*glish), so it would be a fair theory (which again, within the meta context would be possible) to say that there are some that didn’t run away from him. Some that were doomed from the very beginning, and most importantly: some that escaped the gruesome fate of getting ass-fucked by Big Daddy Paradox Space. 

Talking about this reminds me why my closest friends bully me for sounding like a Dirk Kinnie. Essentially, you could say I’m writing about another timeline’s John and his reactions and actions. 

Let’s not forget that the one that just died after fucking in a car wasn’t truly ‘their John’, as the original John Egbert (and I suppose Roxy for that matter) were both from another timeline entirely. Terezi’s ‘actual John’ got boiled by his Denizen for what was pretty much the ‘greater good’. 

So let’s get down to it.

What is another self-fulfilled John Egbert doing while some version of him just died? Time to take a look. 

==> Observe the other potential and essentially existent universes.


	3. Section B.1

==> Observe the other potential and essentially existent universes.

John Egbert sits at the edge of the round platform. The soft light that comes from the panels shaped like a house looms over him: the door is unopened. He’s alone. Everyone already went in. So much for unopened. His lame excuse to stick around was a cheery ‘I want to welcome everyone!’ Of course. We know for sure that he was depresso espresso the moment we read the Prologue. Consider this: depression is something that slowly builds up over time, a place one ends up in after various traumas and unresolved emotional problems. It’s a fair assumption to say that he was probably already depressed long before the game happened. 

We like to think that he’s more oblivious to his own feelings over being in denial about them, but I can’t say I think he’s that emotionally immature. Just because something hasn’t outright been shown in front of the audience doesn’t automatically mean it isn’t true (prime example: Dave Strider and Karkat Vantas being canon even though it was expressed after Homestuck ended and before any off-spring of the cancer we know as Homestuck existed). 

What I’m saying is, John is sitting at the edge of the universe thinking about all the things he should have been telling his closest friends instead of bottling up like a dumbass. He ought to have told Dave; but he gets the feeling he would have become the stick in his wheel seeing as how much happier he seemed to be presently. On his way to recovery, he thinks. John has always backpedaled on this sort of shit. His friends have had so much more happen to them. Although you and I both know that comparing traumas is never a good idea since emotions and memories are subjective, abstract things to some degree. Rose was with Kanaya. Jade... was with Davepeta? Or she wasn’t, but she was happy-- happier. So John didn’t say anything. 

Everyone else was roped together, Roxy and Calliope, Dave and Karkat, Jade and Jake. He eyed Dirk for a while. He doesn’t know if he’s ever really spoken to him. He hadn’t given him much thought. Maybe he should; maybe he shouldn’t. John had other plans for the moment. Legs dangling off of the edge, slowly rising upwards and floating back to his feet on the empty platform, John decided it was the time to just go. 

By technicality, this has already happened, right? It’s in ‘the past’ and ‘why are you talking about this shit?’ well, time is mumbly-jumbly. We view it as linear for our own sanity and to make our lives much easier. Any Timebound will know better than to think that Time was ever linear. Everything that will happen and never happen is happening all at once yet not really. For us John’s experience was in the past, but for him it’s in the present. We really shouldn’t be this Time-phobic, guys. 

He walks through the door. Nothing changed there, right? He’s in a new Utopia. But what if instead of churning in his issues until Meat or Candy essentially happened (or in this case never came to be due to his absence) he decided to do something awfully characteristic of him? Go with the wind. Fuck right off the planet. Visit other universes, seeing as he’s capable of going back in Time and Space as he pleases. Or well, whenever he’s managed to control this OP shit powers. Maybe visit other timelines and just watch, visualise. Get to know things about his friends that they never told him. He could look for his dad, but he kind of already found his dad. 

With the exception that it isn’t REALLY his dad. Yes but no. You know what I’m talking about. That whole idea sounds kind of creepy now that he thinks about it. It wouldn’t be that bad if he just lurked around though, right? If he knew Dirk any better, he’d even consider stalking all his splinters. It would’ve made for a fun experience. Maybe he could do so near the end, when all is said and done and he’s seen everything he wanted to see and he couldn’t think of anything else.


	4. Section B.2

So he floats there, in ‘Earth C’s’ atmosphere, and watches as the clouds pass him by. Usually, this high up, he should probably have issues breathing. Not having time to wonder about such a frivolous concept before, he entertains himself with it as he aimlessly wonders about the empty sky. It’s so blue-- almost too blue. Even you could see the tiny perfections (which essentially were imperfect due to how plainly obvious they were) as cracks in this universe’s mask. 

Forest green, sandy, navy blue. It looks like his planet after the dinosaur era, or maybe they still are in it? Maybe Dave and Jade haven’t decided to make everyone else fuck off into the future and dally around for the rest of their days. Can’t know for sure; could have easily left John behind and never said a thing at all. 

“This is stupid.” thank you for the wonderful commentary, John, you’re very much right. The protagonist lets himself float down with half a fuck to give, seemingly headed for a forest, what is that? Birch? Probably. Let’s face it: he could go anywhere; any time. What’s stopping him from passing time through all this planet’s eras? 

Johnathan Egbert may be going headfirst into something right now. What about his friends?

“What about my friends?” mumbled, barely audible. Hands fitted into his pockets, walking about the forest as if he owns it (which he kind of does) and tilting his head when he hears something. Walking around through here may be a bad idea considering the time period, and the fact that civility probably isn’t an invented concept yet.

That’s a good question. What about them? As of right now, John isn’t entirely sure how he should be able to contact his friends seeing as game mechanics don’t apply, well, outside the game. Then again. Why would he really want to talk to them since he already decided to fuck off anyway? If they really cared, they would have waited for him, after all. Maybe he’s just attempting to reason with himself so that he doesn’t have one more reason to start feeling disdain towards the people he grew up with.

At the same time, isn’t he the one who ushered them off and away ahead of him. Sure, he did that, but why did he feel the need to in the first place? Why did he think that was the best option at the time anyway? Had he wanted time alone, or maybe wanted to see if they’d come back and wait for him. John wasn’t all that sure; yet his feet took him aimlessly forwards, until he met the beginning (or end) of the forest. There seemed to be some sort of sign of life at the very least, which was what he was looking for in the first place. Many carapacians swarmed around, setting up base, busying themselves in a somewhat good (yet tired) mood. 

He automatically took a step back upon noticing that Jade was flawlessly instructing them. Without even looking, her arms seemed to sway eloquently with bursts of emotion shown on her face, yet her eyes seemed to either be focused elsewhere or unseen from that angle. She’d flied above the entire operation, to make her job as ‘manager’ far easier. 

Is this what he wanted to witness? Or take a part in? Was he really interested in working with people he’d actually felt disconnected from for a while? His feet kept moving him about, shifting awkwardly backwards, little by little. Just as he thought, he’d be better off taking the time to get to know himself better; to enjoy his own company. If he really regretted this decision in the end he could’ve always come back to this time, but a bit farther into the future, and merely explained his absence away by pretending to be clumsy. 

With that in mind, he let the breeze decide where he should go next, eyes closed and wind leaving the crevasses of his body.


	5. Section C.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol hey. shoutout to the one dude who asked me if im going to update this.  
> i updated it, there you go.  
> actually, i think im going to make it a weekly thing (at least) and try to see how much i can write across the week then release it all in one go. seeing as this chapter has 900 words in one sitting i think i can write far more than that in a week

==> John: ?

Well, seeing as he decided to do this thing on a whim, he hadn’t exactly thought of the location at first. That may be why he brought himself back to where everything began. His house. 

More precisely, he landed himself in his childhood home’s tree, having an awkward view of the first floor. There, the John of this time was just turning thirteen, with all his classic shenanigans beginning from there on. How stupid.  
... John briefly reminisces over how cool (he thought) it would be to play a game with his three good friends. The insurmountable blatant affection that DAD showed him also crossed from one brain cell to the other. Whatever, he should be focusing on more important things right now. ==> John: untangle your hood. It's stuck in a tree branch. Even while alone, he managed to embarrass himself. Either way, he looked at the driveway and noted that his father had yet to come home. 

Was it really a good idea to be stalking his own teenage-boy life like this? Eh, to Hell with that notion. Speaking of ‘to Hell with that notion,’ we’ll also be throwing ‘we shouldn’t steal DAD’s PDA’ to Hell too. Which means he'll be lounging around here for a while and wait for him to get home... Which obviously means...

==> John: prank your younger self epically.

Yeah, this sounds like a very good idea, actually. Why not? Your past self would’ve done it. Let’s see. John can only stick around for so long; keeping in mind the fact that Rose is John’s server player and she’s bound to see him the moment she connects to Little John (well, at worst, that just means he has to abandon the premises, or jump timelines perhaps), so he has to make it quick. Is altering a doomed timeline detrimental he wonders? Probably fucking not, since it’s already doomed, John you moron.

A bucket and some water is all he needs. The good question is where he’s going to place it. Hmm. Maybe if he cracked open the door just slightly. If he remembers right, Little J went downstairs in hopes of seeing if the SBURB BETA was in the kitchen or not. Perfect for John. Well, this is easy enough. Time to break in.

And by breaking in, I mean flying towards the bathroom window and forcing that shit open. 

The bucket was found under the sink, nicely enough. The water was procured from said bathroom, and as sneakily as he could, he cracked open the bathroom door, bucket in hand. It was showtime. This is it, this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Well, I knew this was coming honestly and it isn’t that exciting from a Narrator God’s point of view. Maybe if you’re personally affiliated with Little J? Yeah, sure.

Bucket placed, hiding behind the fugly harlequin position secured. It was time to go down. 

...

==>

Fifteen minutes later, Little J opens the door. Water spectacularly splashes on him, but what’s even more important: the bucket just clocks him over the head. Magnificent. John’s prankster gambit fucking bursts, and he’s slightly amused. 

These shenanigans will be put to a stop until he procures DAD’s PDA. Lil J’s unpleasant screeches are music to our protagonist’s ears. To mine too, to some extent. Who doesn’t like bullying some kids? Don’t act like a puritan, you don’t have morals on this part of the internet, fool. 

Once the coast is clear, and he can hear his kid self complain about DAD pranking the shit out of him, John decides it’s time to make a run for it through the kitchen. Then the utility room, and then the door that leads to the backyard. Given that the front door is a stupid idea, and there are no windows to fly out of on the bottom floor. 

Well, this was good. What now?

Now we wait.

Well, not all that much, since his father comes within the next five minutes. He hears the car pulling into the driveway, this is good. Now, if he guessed right, he’ll be in the fucking kitchen, which means he either needs to be drawn out of it, or John just needs to snatch the PDA left on the table next to the window and fuck off. 

Little J and DAD will be busy strifing over Betty Crocker and diabetes at this point. He can just swipe it. John walks towards the kitchen window on the side of the house. It’s all fogged up. 

Welp, it’s been a good run folks, but this is where we part. 

what the fuck was that just now? 

Or that’s what John said to himself anyway. Sometimes slip ups happen and the characters become too aware. Won't happen again, Pinkie Promise. Moving on. He quickly pulls up the window just enough for him to cram his other arm through the gap and takes the PDA when his counterpart fucks up the air with powdered sugar. Honestly, why was he like that? No matter, it gave him some sort of camouflage. After that, he bolted for the skies. 

What if anyone saw him? 

This planet’s going to be railed by meteors anyway, fuck it. 

Next, he should think of a place where he can get some peace and quiet and fiddle with this old piece of tech.


	6. Section C.2

==> John: go to the park near your old childhood home

What would be the point in exerting his sweet, sweet precious time and energy if he could stick around for as long as possible? Not like anybody was really around right before the world was ending, right? Sure, something like that. 

He sat his ass down on a park bench and slid the PDA out of his pocket. Damn... This thing looked old. John then proceeded to feel like he finally caught up with time and was just about ready to become so old and finicky his body would slowly crumble into the abyss, like a Thanos snap.

whats a thanos snap? 

John shook his head. Sometimes he hears things he’s really not supposed to hear, my bad once again. 

It was so small in his hand; he vividly remembers how bulky it had once been. Strange. The screen is shit too, he noted, it felt like he was scrolling down plastic surface. Well, it’ll do for now. What the Hell could he even do with this in the first place? Browse the internet, or maybe pester his chums from the past. That was a strange concept, given he wanted nothing to do with them right now. 

==> John: check out your best bro’s ironic websites while the planet gets ready to go to shit. 

Plausible enough, it never hurt to go down a harmless nostalgic trip. With slight irritation and impatience, John opened up the browser on the PDA and typed in the link.

ERROR! Try reloading this page again later if you have internet. 

the wifi from this cafe is so bad!! 

Reload. There we go, in full glory, Sweet Jeff and Hella Bro. He’s already read all of these, and remembers most of them vividly, but it never hurt to skim them over one last time. From one page, onto the next, he keeps clicking away anytime he’s done reading whatever the site presents to him. The CSS is so bad, supposedly in an ironic manner.

The reading continues, and John slowly trudges from being interested in the comic to a spiral of feelings and loneliness. During this era, Dave was so alone. Well not really, he had a bunch of fucking puppets, cameras, and Bro to keep watch over him. Just... Internally, he lacked what John had when he was thirteen. No one you idolised to put their arm on your shoulder and give you a thumbs-up, to put it that way. 

Maybe he shouldn’t have taken Dave’s word for it when he said he was cool as ice, and maybe he shouldn’t have been so naive to hope that everything was truly okay with him. Maybe if--

shhhhHHHHHHH 

What was that?

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 

oh, fuck 

He tipped his head back to get a better look of the burning meteor. It was heading straight for his ass. 

when the going gets tough its time to go!

==> John: teleport to the first place you think of out of panic


End file.
